1st Edition
Aroma The Cultural History of Smell
256 Pages
by
Routledge
260 Pages
by
Routledge
256 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Smell is a social phenomenon, given particular meanings and values by different cultures. Odours form the building blocks of cosmologies, class hierarchies, and political odours. They can enforce social structures or transgress them, unite people or divide them, empower or disempower. The authors argue that the sociology of smell is repressed in the modern West, and its social history ignored.... Read more
List of tables, Acknowledgements, Introduction: The meaning and power of smell, Part I: In search of lost scents, 1. The aromas of antiquity, 2. Following the scent: From the Middle Ages to modernity, Part II: Explorations in olfactory difference, 3. Universes of odour, 4. The rites of smell, Part III: Odour, power and society5. Odour and power: The politics of smell, 6. The aroma of the commodity: The commercialization of smell, Notes, Bibliography, Index
Biography
Constance Classen is the author of Inca Cosmology and the Human Body and Worlds of Sense; David Howes is the editor of The Varieties of Sensory Experience; and Anthony Synnott is the author of The Body Social.
`One of the most common ritual uses of odour across cultures is to combat illness,' write the authors of Aroma' - Glasgow Herald
`Aroma is a fund of stimulating stories and has obviously been well researched.' - Times Higher Educ Supplement
